rthstewart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rthstewart) wrote2010-01-21 12:07 pm
rthstewart) wrote2010-01-21 12:07 pm
Entry tags:
All Aboard!
Chapter 15 of TQSiT, Folly, is up.
We have, in no particular order:
A word about that last one, but frankly, I'm more interested in what you thought. Susan is kissing someone who is not Caspian, Peter, or Rabadash. Further, it is consensual and her consent is not ambiguous, in fact, she is the initiator. Susan and sexual violence seem to show up a fair bit in fandom and that is obviously not something I want perpetuate at all. Fandom needs those story lines the way I need more dog hair in my shoes.
Further, there is, admittedly, a "squick" factor because of her apparent age, of which Tebbitt is ignorant and Guy knows full well. So, I go there, but only so far, which makes her initiation and control of the situation even more important. This is not Susan's first time in this situation, I wanted to assure an equality of power, i wanted "no" to mean "no," and I wanted her to really desire this and still have the wisdom and intellect to stop. So yes, a total fantasy, I suppose. This is one I've been thinking about a whole lot and am really curious to see what folks think.
We have, in no particular order:
- The return of Evil Banker Morgan and Jina
- A refutation of the incest stories (which I sort of felt I needed to do in order to write a Peter & Susan relationship without the Peter/Susan connotation.
- A build out of the ideas of Ilysia on Susan and Rabadash
- And, in the Spare Oom part, kissing.
A word about that last one, but frankly, I'm more interested in what you thought. Susan is kissing someone who is not Caspian, Peter, or Rabadash. Further, it is consensual and her consent is not ambiguous, in fact, she is the initiator. Susan and sexual violence seem to show up a fair bit in fandom and that is obviously not something I want perpetuate at all. Fandom needs those story lines the way I need more dog hair in my shoes.
Further, there is, admittedly, a "squick" factor because of her apparent age, of which Tebbitt is ignorant and Guy knows full well. So, I go there, but only so far, which makes her initiation and control of the situation even more important. This is not Susan's first time in this situation, I wanted to assure an equality of power, i wanted "no" to mean "no," and I wanted her to really desire this and still have the wisdom and intellect to stop. So yes, a total fantasy, I suppose. This is one I've been thinking about a whole lot and am really curious to see what folks think.
no subject
First off - by 'feminism' I do not mean let's make all our women characters super-strong and competitive and loudmouthed and, you know, men in women's bodies. I've always had an issue with that sort of abrasive view of feminism - that it needs to be all about putting women on an equal stand with men, usually by making them eschew dresses and makeup and other 'girly' things. I much prefer an idea where women can be women, can be proud to be women, and of course it would be optimal if women and men *could* be fully equal in terms of wages and opportunity and such, but I don't think that women should need to try to be more 'manly' to do that. The real feminist fight should be for a world where we embrace the fact that yes, women and men are different, but that's okay, because everyone still has worth and should be respected and celebrated for that.
I really didn't mean for this post to turn into a rant. Let's move on to your glorious story.
What I want to look at is the scene after Morgan's left, after the incest idea has been brought up and shot down, when Peter and Susan discuss her romantic life and Rabadash is brought up.
There was something that struck me very hard in the fact that, as much as he truly does respect his sister and everything she is capable of, Peter still seems to assume that to *others* she is only beauty and a marriage-prize; Lambert, too, though in a different way. With Lambert we of course know that his entire life is devoted to keeping Susan safe, and also we already know that Rabadash is His Royal Ass-ness and that Lambert's wariness of Rabadash's apparent respect for Susan's brain is well-founded. BUT. Throughout the Chronicles and Narnia fandom, there is a deeply-rooted and sometimes quite subtle view that as competent as Susan might be, her primary power and raison d'etre, as it were, is to be pretty, and to attract men. This, by the way, is not at all a critique of your portrayal - but that powerful comment of Lambert's in which he says that the very reason he so distrusts Rabadash is that Rabadash is seemingly NOT infatuated with Susan and her beauty - that is a very powerful line not just in terms of the immediate story but, for me, in terms of something much larger.